


wishing i lived there (heard it a dozen times)

by Kju (kuj)



Category: Mulawin (TV)
Genre: F/F, philippine telenovela
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 11:17:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6077364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuj/pseuds/Kju
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>everyone's story starts somewhere. aviona's begins twice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	wishing i lived there (heard it a dozen times)

**Author's Note:**

> Betcha no one expected a Mulawin fanwork. Betcha no one knows what Mulawin is either. It's pretty old so I don't think there are any HQ episodes up anywhere, but it's basically a philippine fantasy telenovela from back in 2004 about bird people fighting evil bird people, and was somehow pretty important to me when I was younger. 
> 
> Largely unbeta-ed and purely written for fun and wish fulfillment. Title taken from Keaton Henson's 'nests'.

it’s an accident, the first time she follows aguiluz to spy on- well, watch- the sugo. they are sixteen, and habagat was hard on them today. aguiluz flew off in a temper, and their elder had shook his head and motioned for her to follow. she hadn’t realised where she would be following aguiluz to.

it’s the furthest aviona has ever flown from avila, and while she is apparently, almost as talented as aguiluz, she has always been better at being fast than being tough. and aviona is smart- she knows they’ve flown right into human lands, and is smart enough to know they’ll probably get punished severely for this.

after what seems like long minutes of flying straight down, aguiluz finally lands and she follows suit, less gracefully. she collapses in the tendrils of a banyan tree, exhausted, but still darting her eyes around for any humans that could be around.

it’s a quiet stretch of nature where she landed, and she rights herself, dusting herself off and shaking her wings. but the sudden movement stills her, and a jolt of pain rushes through her left wing. 

’a sprain,’ she mutters to herself, eyes hardening. aviona sets her mouth in a thin line and tries to fly, and manages a few feet off the ground with a shaking wing until she plummets, hard, not far from where she started.

aguiluz is nowhere to be seen, and aviona feels a rush of panic. she is alone, and while she knows if she wants to get home to avila, all she has to do is fly up, the thought of being spotted by a human makes the bile rise to her mouth.

everyone knows why the mulawin must live in the skies, everyone knows what the humans have done- even if the humans themselves do not remember.

so, aviona shivers, trying to lift herself off the ground, suffering for every inch she manages to fly. again and again, she plummets, either on hard, grassy ground or trees that seem to stretch on forever.

she becomes so engulfed in trying to fly that she forgets herself, and a moment is all it takes. aviona lets out a frustrated cry, grabbing at her feathers and breathing heavily. 

a moment is all it takes, as well, for a human girl to come tumbling into the flora and almost straight into aviona. her hair is black and straight, skin like old wood but softer than the very feathers on aviona’s back. her eyes are dark and impossibly warm- and power flows through her like nothing else aviona has known.

it takes a moment, another, for aviona to realise the girl half-splayed on her is none other than the sugo. the chosen. the one who will come to liberate them all in time, and aviona pales.

“are you alright?” the girl breathes. “I heard a noise and- I thought someone might have gotten lost in here.”

aviona blinks. her grey eyes squint at the girl, for whom bird-men were apparently a non-issue. the girl looked at her expectantly.

“I’m-I am fine. thank you. please-“ aviona says, gently trying to push the sugo off herself. “-I have to leave. you were never meant to see me.”

as they right themselves and aviona attempts to fly away again, this time with more motivation than before, the sugo suddenly says, “I understand you must have.. rules,” hurried, and her hands clutch the old shawl around her shoulders, “but.. you seem hurt.”

“I am fine. please leave me be.”

the sugo frowns at this, but aviona can only think of how the sugo is walking closer, and how her face is unmarred by a slight scowl. the sugo is beautiful, with a face fitting of a savior, and aviona splutters at the sudden turn of her thoughts.

“you are not,” the sugo says, suddenly so much closer, a hand reaching for aviona’s injured wing. “i may not be mulawin, but i know an injury when i see one.”

the sensation of a human hand touching her wing suddenly registers with aviona, and she freezes, drifting downwards, trying not to sigh at how gentle the other girl’s hand is. still, the injury hurts, more that she’s put strain on it, and it’s hard to mask.

the sugo reaches with both hands now, placing her shawl around aviona and managing it around her shoulders. aviona is shorter, just by a few inches, and the sugo smiles kindly at her. aviona swallows.

“I’ll get something to help that from my house. it’s not far,” the sugo says, motioning north. aviona eyes the setting sun with trepidation. “I’ll be quick. will you be alright?”

aviona nods, full of apprehension, but with the slow hopefulness of a mulawin out of options. she wonders if maybe she’s weak against the sugo’s requests, implied or otherwise. she wonders if it’s a mulawin trait, to be submissive to the savior.

maybe it’s just her, aviona thinks, as she realises she’s been watching the other girl too intently for too long. she blushes and makes a move to turn away, unwittingly clutching the shawl closer to herself.

she hears the soft rustling of the girl’s long skirt as she turns away, presumably to leave, but aviona suddenly feels a warm hand on her bare forearm. 

“by the way,” the sugo says, smiling and eyes bright, “my name is alwina.”

aviona smiles back, slowly. 

(-but later, much later, it is aguiluz that alwina grows to love, it is aguiluz who helps alwina save them all- and it is aviona who almost dooms them all, gabriel at her side and hatred in her heart.)

-

epilogue, or, but i did say the story starts twice

-

ava knows, just knows, being late to class on the first day is a sign. luz’s texts haven’t stopped coming since the first one declaring _‘u r late lol, ill plan ur funeral’_ came at nine in the morning.

her boots are slightly cuffed, her phone is half-charged, the manila sun is bearing down hard on her back, and her driver will probably tell her mother all about how ava damn near jumped out of the car at a red light and shouted about running the rest of the way because the damn traffic would make her even later.

it’s the beginning of a crappy day, and ava hopes it doesn’t set the standard or anything for the rest of her final year at university. she’s been through too much, given up too much sleep and paid far too much to slip up this year.

but then, of course she runs into someone, and of course hers and the human freaking wall’s things fall in a heap between them.

ava groans, but still, mumbles “sorry,” as she bends down with her, collecting their things. her phone is part of the mess, lying near the person’s- admittedly cute shoes. a green binder with stickers of bird silhouettes are between them, one ava knows isn’t hers. she hands it to the stranger with one hand and makes a move for her phone with the other.

“no, it’s my fault,” comes the reply, “I am so late for my grad prep class, and I couldn’t stop my feet.”

ava looks up at that, the stupid-sounding reason to run into someone, readying her incredulous laugh. instead, her voice catches in her throat, and her hand stills.

the girl looks at her, almost expectantly, but almost as confused as ava feels. her eyes are dark, her skin is a gorgeous brown, and her hair falls over her shoulders like a soft curtain.

she looks at ava too, almost staring, her eyes skittering from ava’s grey eyes to her light brown hair to the nearly-invisible freckles dotting her pale face. the hand taking the notebook is still, too.

(ava, for her part, is slack-jawed, which luz would have noted as a first.)

neither move for the longest time, until the other girl reaches for the phone at her feet and hands it to ava. their hands brush and ava feels like she’s taken a breath of air after a lifetime of drowning. 

“I’m sorry, again,” the girl starts, slow and unsure. her hand grips ava’s forearm and pulls her up with her, and ava follows like her body can’t resist. “that was weird. of me, i mean. sorry.”

“I-“ ava finally manages, “no, I’m sorry. are you, um, okay?”

“I’m fine,” the girl says, smiling softly. “but I am late.”

ava blinks, then remembers luz and his texts and the professor probably preparing to take her head off. “so am I, actually.”

“which way are you headed?”

“yuchengco building.”

the girl smiles a little wider, and starts walking, her hand touching ava’s shoulder and motioning with her head to move, too. ava follows because apparently her body is stupid and can’t resist a pretty girl. 

“same. we should get going then, before the sprinklers get going.” the girl looks at her watch, scrunches her face, and ava is charmed further. “it’s almost eleven.”

“alright,” ava says, falling into step with the girl. for a tuesday, there aren’t many people at school, so they walk side by side, their arms occasionally brushing against the other’s. the droning hum of the crickets in the trees do nothing to drown out ava's heartbeat pounding in her ears.

the girl is a little taller, and ava’s mind wanders, thinking of slipping her arms around the girl’s neck and pulling her down to meet her mouth. it's such a sudden thought that ava shakes her head and blushes, looking at her phone instead of at the girl. “I’m sorry, again. won’t happen again.”

“I kind of hope it does,” the other girl says as they round a corner. their arms brush again, and ava almost collides with it when she realises what the girl said. 

a warm hand is suddenly on ava's bare arm, and something like a tickle starts in ava's mind. she’s caught in the gaze of this girl, and something in ava has her unable to move, watching the girl’s lips move, rooted to the spot by a simple touch on the arm and smiling eyes that feel more familiar than her own home.

ava’s mind whirls, the girl’s touch warmer by the second.

“by the way,” the girl says, “my name is alwina.”

(-and later, but much later, ava drives ina- alwina, with her quick smile and perpetually smiling eyes- to a lake near an old banyan tree forest, where they laugh and swim and kiss, while ava keeps a small ring safe in her bag, safe for the girl who shines like the sun and loves her like her own personal savior.)

**Author's Note:**

> a lot of the terms here are from the show or in Tagalog, so, a quick rundown.
> 
> sugo - the chosen  
> avila - home of the Mulawin, the 'good' bird people, all the way up in the sky  
> aguiluz - the Actual Protagonist. all around good guy, i guess  
> aviona - his best friend, who was pining for him in the show, but i wanted to write gay aviona so  
> alwina - the chosen one. actually bird person but living among people.  
> habagat - stern bird guy. his name means southwest monsoon.
> 
> Also, the name of the college building near the end is an actual building from my university, lmao.


End file.
